SSH Like A Pro

Hey Mate! Welcome to another blog. Here we will discuss about SSH automation.

Tired of manually typing long SSH commands every time? Want to auto-complete your SSH like a pro? Well, you’re in the right place!

Ever find yourself typing out long SSH commands, only to realize you’ve misspelled the hostname? Or worse — forgotten the exact host? 😫 If you’re tired of manually looking up hostnames, it’s time to level up your SSH game with auto-completion using ~/.ssh/config! 🚀

With just a bit of setup, you can:
✅ Auto-complete SSH hostnames with Tab

✅ Avoid remembering long hostnames

✅ Save time and effort while connecting

✅SSH UI for Login

Let’s dive in and make SSH work for you, not against you! 😎

1️⃣ Without Use SSH Auto-Completion?

The Problem

Without SSH auto-completion, you might find yourself doing things like:

ssh 192.168.1.104 -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa -p 2222 -J jumpserver

That’s a lot of typing, and let’s be real — you’re going to mess it up at some point.

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Solution:

🛠 Create or Edit Your ~/.ssh/config File

Run this command to open (or create) your SSH config file:

nano ~/.ssh/config

Now, add your SSH hosts in this format:

Host my-server
    HostName 192.168.1.104
    User myuser
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
    Port 2222
    ProxyJump jumpserver
Host my-webserver
    HostName 10.0.0.5
    User ubuntu
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/webserver_key
Host jumpserver
    HostName 10.11.0.5
    User ubuntu
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/webserver_key

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The real problem is here:

But wait if you have 50+ hostname, how can you remember for all the hostnames ? it’s pretty annoying right.

How It feel like, if you can complete with “TAB” while type SSHhostnames ?

Like linux navigation 😋😋

Let’s do SSH Auto Completion…

🛠 2 : Enable Auto-Completion in Bash

Now, let’s make sure your terminal can auto-complete SSH hostnames:

complete -W "$(grep "Host" ~/.ssh/config | grep -vE "HostName|Hostname|no" | awk '{print $2}' | sed -E "/\*/d")" ssh

💡 Tip: Add this line to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc to make it permanent:

echo 'complete -W "$(grep "Host" ~/.ssh/config | grep -vE "HostName|Hostname|no" | awk '{print $2}' | sed -E "/\*/d")"' ssh >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

3. Testing SSH Auto-Completion:

Now, try typing:

ssh my<tab>
# output
my-server my-webserver

Your terminal should auto-complete to myserver. 🎉

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4. Let’s Connect via SSH UI:

But wait, yes you heard right it’s SSH UI.

Execute the below script, and you navigate and log in the hosts.

Pre-requisites:

apt install dialog

SSH-UI Script:

#!/bin/bash

# Extract hosts from SSH config
HOSTS=$(grep "Host" ~/.ssh/config | grep -vE "HostName|Hostname|no" | awk '{print $2}' | sort -h | sed -E "/\*/d")

# Build dialog menu options dynamically
MENU_OPTIONS=""
COUNT=1
declare -A HOST_MAP  # Map for storing numbered options

while read -r HOST; do
    MENU_OPTIONS+="$COUNT \"$HOST\" "
    HOST_MAP["$COUNT"]="$HOST"
    ((COUNT++))
done <<< "$HOSTS"

# Show dialog menu
MACHINE=$(dialog --menu "Welcome! Karthick-Dkk\nSelect Machine for Login:" 0 0 0 $MENU_OPTIONS 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3 3>&-)

clear

# If a valid selection was made, SSH into the selected host
if [[ -n "$MACHINE" ]]; then
    ssh "${HOST_MAP[$MACHINE]}"
    exit
else
    echo "No machine selected. Exiting..."
    exit 1
fi

Execute:

chmod +x 
./ssh-ui-script

SSH-UI

Add to system-level command: (Optional)

If tired of executing manually, we can make our life easier, will add system command for SSH-UI.

command: ui-ssh

# ln -s >location of script>  <command-name>
ln -s ssh-ui-script /usr/bin/ui-ssh

Once added you can use the below command to open the SSH-UI.

ui-ssh

Now you can select your SSH host from a menu instead of typing! 🖥️

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️5. Bonus: Convert Salt Roster (/etc/salt/roster) to ~/.ssh/config (Automation)

If you manage many hosts using SaltStack, manually adding entries is a pain. Here’s a script to convert /etc/salt/roster to ~/.ssh/config automatically:

🔧 Roster to SSH Config Script

#!/bin/bash
ROSTER_FILE="/etc/salt/roster"
SSH_CONFIG="$HOME/.ssh/config"
# Backup existing SSH config
cp "$SSH_CONFIG" "$SSH_CONFIG.bak"
> "$SSH_CONFIG"
while read -r line; do
    [[ -z "$line" || "$line" =~ ^#.*$ ]] && continue  
    if [[ "$line" =~ ^[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+: ]]; then
        HOST_ALIAS="${line%:}"
    elif [[ "$line" =~ "host:" ]]; then
        HOST_IP=$(echo "$line" | awk '{print $2}')
    elif [[ "$line" =~ "user:" ]]; then
        SSH_USER=$(echo "$line" | awk '{print $2}')
    elif [[ "$line" =~ "port:" ]]; then
        SSH_PORT=$(echo "$line" | awk '{print $2}')
    elif [[ "$line" =~ "priv:" ]]; then
        SSH_KEY=$(echo "$line" | awk '{print $2}')
    elif [[ "$line" =~ "proxy:" ]]; then
        PROXY_JUMP=$(echo "$line" | awk '{print $2}')
    fi
    if [[ -n "$HOST_ALIAS" && -n "$HOST_IP" && -n "$SSH_USER" && -n "$SSH_KEY" ]]; then
        {
            echo "Host ${HOST_ALIAS}"
            echo "    HostName $HOST_IP"
            echo "    User $SSH_USER"
            echo "    Port ${SSH_PORT:-22}"
            echo "    IdentityFile $SSH_KEY"
            [[ -n "$PROXY_JUMP" ]] && echo "    ProxyJump $PROXY_JUMP"
            echo ""
        } >> "$SSH_CONFIG"
        unset HOST_ALIAS HOST_IP SSH_USER SSH_PORT SSH_KEY PROXY_JUMP  
    fi
done < "$ROSTER_FILE"
echo "SSH config updated!"

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Run It:

chmod +x roster_to_ssh_config.sh
sudo ./roster_to_ssh_config.sh

TL;DR — Quick Setup

1️⃣ Edit ~/.ssh/config and add your hosts
2️⃣ Enable auto-completion in Bash/Zsh
3️⃣ Use ssh <tab> to autocomplete hostnames
4️⃣ (Bonus) Convert /etc/salt/roster to ~/.ssh/config
5️⃣ (Bonus) SSH menu selection script

Enjoy your new and improved SSH workflow! 🎉

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Why This Rocks?

✅ Saves Time: No more typing long SSH commands
✅ Auto-Completion: Just press TAB and autocomplete!
✅ No More IP Headaches: Human-friendly SSH hostnames
✅ Portable & Reusable: Works across multiple machines

Final Thoughts:

🔹 Before: Manually typing long SSH commands 😩
🔹 After: Tab-completion, menu selection, and automation! 🚀

This setup saves time, reduces errors, and makes SSH easier. No more “What was that server’s IP again?” moments! 😂

If you found this useful, share it with your fellow sysadmins! 💡💻

Try it out and thank me later! 😉 Happy SSH-ing! 🚀🐧